Why I Don't Believe in Karma

First off, I'd like to say "hi" and I'm new at this blogging business. So I apologize in advance for typos and grammatical errors!! haha Second, I just wanted to say that I'm not an expert in any field. Any posts or blogs made by me are simply observations or thoughts I have floatin' around in my noggin. ^_^ I'm just finally glad I have a place that I can blog and express my thoughts without worrying about pissing off my FB friends (or family)...

Okay, now that that's out of the way..

I'm not sure if anyone else looks this closely at the whole concept, but since my deconversion, I've given serious thought to deities, supreme ruling entities, metaphysical laws, abstract concepts, moral concepts, KARMA, and such. After ruling out any possibility of any deities or governing force that ties us all together, I just have a hard time believing that the universe actually gives a crap about me, you, or any other organism.

I understand that people in general just use the term loosely, because we ALL love it when a nemesis gets what was seemingly coming to them (i.e. status update: KARMA'S A BITCH, AIN'T IT?? followed by evil laughter :) But I have heard people, including atheists, state that they believe in karma. Why? It's completely illogical. There is cause and effect. For every action that you, your mother, your old neighbor who ran off with an internet lover back in the 90s, or whoever, commit there is a reaction somewhere, even though it doesn't necessarily have to come back to you or them. I'm just tired of hearing random people say when something good happened to them that it was karma. No, you got the internship because you worked your ass off in class and studied, and perhaps was even favored by the teacher. It was not karma looking out after you. Or when your ex knocks up someone from a one-night stand-- not karma! People breed everyday! Animals breed everyday! It's not a miracle or some cosmic force that made her egg become fertilized just to please you because your ex wronged you some time ago. Cause and effect. For every action, there is a reaction.

I'm really tired of that "everything happens for a reason" bit, too. Who invents this stuff??? Everything does not just "happen for a reason." Things happen because you or someone else did something to set off a chain of reactions. The universe DOES NOT CARE that you decided to eat McDonald's instead of Taco Bell for lunch where you conveniently and coincidentally run into an old friend from high school. I'm sorry. The universe just does not care. Weather and natural disasters happen because that is what happens on a planet, within an atomosphere. They do not happen to punish anyone or to cause anyone an advantage. You may have gotten snowed in your house, but it was not because some mysterious force wanted you to stay in to avoid the wreck on the interstate, which happened, by the way, because of the weather in the first place! It's not a strange miracle that you got snowed in to avoid the wreck!

I'm going close with this: If karma exists, what do children do to get molested? Or die at birth? No, they don't get beamed to heaven upon death, so how will they ever be righted? We'd all like to think that there's something greater out there, if not a god, then some powerful force or energy that intertwines everything within the universe. However, there is a staggering lack of evidence for any such force.

Not fussing at anyone in particular... Just had that pent up a while from all the crap I've been seeing on Facebook. I'm pretty sure a lot of you agree, or this is basic knowledge... I'm just tired of hearing about it.

I wasn't sure if perhaps I was being a little too nit-picky, but I just get tired of hearing it all the time. And some people actually feel like its a validated claim. I don't understand why a seemingly rational person (an atheist) would make that assumption.

@Steve-- Good point! and I agree!

@Ruth-- I know when I was agnostic, I would have hope like that too, even in karma and the whole "reason for everything" deal. Thank goodness it was just a phase. Now I'm not so... clouded? :)

@Eric-- Nice to meet you too! Thanks for the add! And I know you know all too well the horrors of the Bible Belt. O.O

Thanks again everyone for the comments! I really like hearing different takes on the same topic from people who all hold a central belief. Or lack thereof. ;)

We'd all like to think that there's something greater out there, if not a god, then some powerful force or energy that intertwines everything within the universe.

There is a powerful force that intertwines everything within the universe, gravity!

But seriously, I think people look for "something greater" outside of themselves after they had first cut themselves off from the magnificence and wonder in their lives. We create narrow experienced "realities" to feel safe and accepted, and avoid uncomfortable feelings such as helplessness. Then when those lives feel meaningless, we look for the equivalent of a pill, a quick fix.

People want to believe that life is fair. But all attempts to explain life being fair end up saying that people deserve what bad comes to them. Karma (or the law of three) says you must have done something wrong. (I asked my wiccan friends "what about when bad things just happen" and they said "that is the nature of evil"--really? according to this belief, evil outweighs good). And yes, it's arrogant to think that the universe is on your side in some petty he said/she said drama. The "law" of attraction (which I despise) says that the universe gives people what they want. Various Christian beliefs say you didn't pray hard enough or God was smiling down on someone else (why God rescued some people from earthquakes, etc). It's actually more comforting to believe that random things just happen.